How You Can Develop Your Networking Skills: Creating Connections That Matter

Master networking skills with Jeffrey Pfeffer’s “Power” insights: Build extensive, high-status, and central connections for career success. Learn strategies for genuine relationships, overcoming awkwardness, reciprocity, and professional growth in diverse networks.

Your skills matter. Your work ethic matters. But if you think career success comes primarily from what you know rather than who you know, you’re operating with a fundamental misunderstanding of how organizations work. Jeffrey Pfeffer’s research at Stanford Graduate School of Business, documented in “Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don’t,” reveals that your network determines your career trajectory more than your individual human capital.

Research at a newspaper publishing company found that being in a position to control communications within the department is particularly important to being promoted. These results contradict the idea from human capital economics that it is only individual human capital—education, years of experience, and intelligence—that matters for people’s careers, as well as the commonly held belief that job performance determines career outcomes. Network position matters a great deal for your influence and career trajectory.

This isn’t about accumulating business cards or LinkedIn connections. Strategic networking is about building relationships that provide access to resources, information, and opportunities that would otherwise remain out of reach. The question isn’t whether to network—it’s how to network strategically to build power.

The Three Dimensions of Strategic Networks

Pfeffer’s analysis of successful leaders reveals that powerful networks have three essential characteristics: they’re extensive, they include high-status individuals, and they position you strategically within the network structure. Most people focus only on the first dimension while ignoring the second and third, which are often more important.

Network Size: The Extensiveness That Creates Reach

Building an extensive network requires work. It means meeting people, staying in touch, and continually expanding your circle of contacts. The late Congressman Phil Burton from San Francisco exemplified this principle. He obtained his important committee assignments and became a power in the House of Representatives by building relationships with powerful congressmen. He did this even when the congressmen had nothing to do with California issues and even when he had to work with people who were very different from himself politically.

Burton knew where people lived when they were in Washington and where they hung out. He would “just happen” to bump into them. He learned what issues they cared about and made sure to show up at the right events. Burton’s success came from his willingness to invest time and energy in building an extensive network of relationships that gave him influence far beyond what his formal position would suggest.

The key is to overcome natural tendencies toward homophily—the inclination to associate with people similar to ourselves. Most people naturally gravitate toward those who share their backgrounds, interests, and perspectives. But this creates limitations. By forcing yourself to connect with people across different departments, functions, industries, and social circles, you exponentially expand the information and opportunities available to you.

Keith Ferrazzi, now a best-selling author, provides a perfect example. When he graduated from Harvard Business School in 1992, he insisted on meeting the head of Deloitte Consulting before accepting his offer. After drinks at an Italian restaurant in New York City, Ferrazzi agreed to accept the offer on one condition—he and the head of the firm would have dinner once a year at the same restaurant. That audacious request guaranteed Ferrazzi access to the top. Most people would never ask for such a thing, but Ferrazzi understood that extensive networks require deliberate relationship-building with people at all levels, particularly at the top.

Network Status: Connecting with Powerful People

It’s not just about how many people you know—it’s about who those people are. In his studies of social networks, sociologist Mark Granovetter found evidence for something he called “the strength of weak ties.” The basic idea is that the people you know well probably know each other and have access to the same information and opportunities you do. But acquaintances—weak ties—connect you to different social circles and therefore provide access to different information and opportunities.

However, Pfeffer’s research suggests an important addition to Granovetter’s insight: it’s not just weak ties that matter, but weak ties to high-status individuals. Having dinner with CEOs provides access that having dinner with middle managers doesn’t. Being connected to influential people opens doors that connections to less powerful people cannot.

Status hierarchies are remarkably stable. Joel Podolny from Yale studied why high-status investment banks don’t simply move into the market segments served by lower-status banks and dominate completely. His answer, from an empirical study of the investment banking industry, is that higher-status banks are constrained from moving down and capturing more of the market because in doing so, they would have to associate with lower-status securities issuers and lose at least some of their status advantage.

This stability means that once you acquire status through high-status connections, you can maintain your influence without expending as much time and effort. One way to acquire status is to start an organization with a compelling mission that attracts high-status people. Philippe did this in Mexico by starting a foundation to educate unskilled workers in the construction industry. The social importance of this activity attracted the most prestigious professor from his engineering school and a board consisting of some of the top social entrepreneurs in Mexico. These social contacts opened numerous real estate career opportunities and built a large, influential network of people from both the private sector and government.

You can monetize your high-status network. An executive coach Pfeffer knows was asked to submit a proposal to coach a CEO. His price: $250,000. The CEO mentioned he had received a proposal from another coach for $25,000. The executive coach replied that he knew and had trained the person supplying the lower-priced bid, and he thought the quality of this other coach’s work was exceptional. Why should the CEO choose him at ten times the price? Because he was having dinner with the CEOs of several large, prominent companies. Could the other coach provide such access and experience? He got the business. People like to bask in reflected glory and associate with high-status others.

Network Position: Centrality and Brokerage

Power and influence come not just from the extensiveness of your network and the status of its members, but also from your structural position within that network. Centrality matters. Research shows that centrality within both advice and friendship networks produces many benefits, including access to information, positive performance ratings, and higher pay.

If virtually all information and communication flows through you, you will have more power. One source of your power will be your control over the flow of information, and another is that people attribute power to individuals who are central. You can assess your centrality by asking what proportion of others in your work nominate you as someone they go to for advice or help with their own work.

When Henry Kissinger became President Nixon’s national security adviser, he made sure that communication about foreign policy issues flowed only through him. He appointed a staff of young, talented, nonpartisan foreign policy analysts to work with him. This move gave Kissinger a good image with the press because it appeared he was just interested in obtaining talent. But because the Nixon loyalists were uncomfortable interacting with people so different from themselves, and the staffers were estranged from the Nixon people, Kissinger was at the center of the flow of information between the NSC staff and the White House.

Physical location can build centrality. An analyst at a Silicon Valley venture capital firm had two options for his desk: a large cubicle in the corner that was quiet but outside the flow of traffic, or a small workstation outside the named partner’s office, which had no walls and no privacy. He chose the location outside the partner’s office. Because of his location, he knew what was going on in the firm and interacted with numerous people coming by to see the partners. Within just a few months, at the weekly Monday morning all-hands meeting, nearly every question began to be pointed in his direction. He was the first analyst in the firm’s history to be invited for a position after graduation.

Beyond centrality, it’s important to have power through connections across diverse networks. Most people tend to associate with those similar to themselves, which creates an opportunity for profiting by building brokerage relations—by bridging the structural holes that exist between noninteracting groups. By connecting units that are tightly linked internally but socially isolated from each other, the person doing the connecting can profit by being the intermediary who facilitates interactions between the two groups.

Kenji, working in a large Japanese electric utility, exemplifies this principle. With an undergraduate degree in nuclear engineering and an MBA, speaking both English and Japanese, Kenji went into international business development after his postgraduate education. Even though he had a low job title and little seniority in a culture where seniority was valued, he was in a great position to broker relations between important departments—engineering and business development. He was the only MBA with a degree in nuclear engineering and the only nuclear engineer with a business degree.

Kenji explained, “Right now I am in a unique position, where critical information related to business development in the global nuclear power sector flows through me since I am the only one who is well connected to both the international division and the nuclear division.” Because his English skills were better than many of his colleagues’, he was invited to participate in telephone calls with some of the most senior people on international development projects to help with translation. Because of his access to information from brokering relations and the insights he acquired from participation in many calls about projects, senior managers began consulting Kenji on important topics.

Making Networking Less Awkward

Many people find networking uncomfortable or artificial. They worry about seeming opportunistic or using people. But this perspective fundamentally misunderstands what effective networking is. Strategic networking isn’t about manipulation—it’s about building genuine relationships that create mutual value over time.

The discomfort with networking often stems from treating it as a transaction rather than relationship-building. When you meet someone solely because you want something from them, both parties feel the awkwardness. But when you approach networking as an opportunity to learn from others, help when you can, and build relationships that might prove valuable to both parties at some undefined future time, the interaction becomes natural and authentic.

Keith Ferrazzi’s approach demonstrates this principle. He didn’t just collect business cards—he built real relationships with people, including insisting on annual dinners with the head of Deloitte. That wasn’t manipulation; it was a recognition that access to important people provides opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise exist, and that relationships require ongoing investment and interaction to maintain.

The Investment Required

Building strategic networks requires time and effort. Phil Burton knew where powerful congressmen lived and hung out. He made sure to “just happen” to bump into them. He learned what issues they cared about and showed up at the right events. This wasn’t accidental—it was deliberate relationship-building.

The investment goes beyond initial meetings. Networks decay without maintenance. You need systems for staying in touch with people, for providing value to your network over time, and for being present when opportunities arise. This might mean sending articles of interest to contacts, making introductions between people in your network who could help each other, or simply checking in periodically.

Many people fail at networking because they only reach out when they need something. By the time you need help from your network, it’s too late to start building it. Strategic networking means investing in relationships before you need them, so that when opportunities or challenges arise, you already have the connections required to capitalize on them or overcome them.

The Power of Strategic Positioning

The most powerful networks aren’t just extensive and high-status—they’re strategically positioned. You want to be the person who connects groups that otherwise wouldn’t interact. You want to control critical information flows. You want to be central to the communications and decisions that matter.

This often means making unconventional choices about where to position yourself in an organization. Instead of taking the prestigious office, take the one that puts you at the center of traffic flow. Instead of joining the most popular committee, join the one that gives you access to decision-makers. Instead of staying within your functional area, build bridges to other departments that would benefit from what you know.

The analysts who joined Kenji’s company after him didn’t have the same opportunities, because he had already established himself as the bridge between engineering and business development. The venture capital analyst who took the desk outside the partner’s office gained advantages that his peers in corner cubicles never accessed. Strategic positioning means thinking carefully about where you place yourself in the network structure and what that position gives you control over.

Leveraging Your Network for Power

Having a strategic network is only valuable if you use it. This means being willing to ask for help, to make introductions, to leverage connections to open doors. Many people build decent networks but then never activate them because they’re uncomfortable asking for favors or feel like they’d be imposing.

But networks are designed to be used. The people in your network understand this. When you help someone in your network, you expect that they might help you in the future. When someone helps you, they know you’ll reciprocate when the opportunity arises. This reciprocity is the foundation of how networks create value.

The key is to maintain balance—provide value to your network over time, not just extract value from it. Make introductions. Share information. Offer help when you can. That way, when you do need something, your request is part of an ongoing relationship of mutual support rather than a one-sided extraction.

As Pfeffer’s research makes clear, your career trajectory depends more on your network than on your individual capabilities. Skills and intelligence matter, but they’re table stakes. The professionals who build substantial power and influence are those who invest deliberately in building extensive networks of high-status individuals and position themselves strategically within those networks. Your network is your net worth—invest in it accordingly.